1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a method for controlling a water supply amount and a refrigerator using the same and, more particularly, to a method for controlling water such that water as much as selected by a user is supplied through a water supply device, and a refrigerator having a water supply device using the control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a refrigerator is a device, including a refrigerator main body including storage spaces such as a freezing chamber, a refrigerating chamber, a vegetable chamber, and the like, a refrigerating cycle device provided in the interior of the refrigerator main body and maintaining the storage spaces at a pre-set temperature, and a door mounted at one side of the refrigerator main body and opening and closing the storage spaces, in order to keep food items such as meat, fish, vegetable, fruits, beverages, and the like in a fresh state.
Thus, improving food item storage performance, reducing the energy consumption required in the process of keeping food items, or easily keeping a larger amount of food items in storage within the same space have been the main subjects in developing refrigerators. However, recently, various other functions than the simple storage function are required for refrigerators, and there have been various attempts to meet the demand.
A dispenser is one of constituent element installed in a refrigerator in order to meet the demand, which simply provides water from a tank stored in the refrigerator or from an external water source without having to open the door of the refrigerator. Recently, besides water dispenser, an ice dispenser for supplying ice is also used.
The dispenser starts to supply water when the user presses a water supply button by using a cup or his hand. In general, water is supplied from the dispenser while the user is pressing the water supply button, but a certain type of dispenser has a function of supplying water by a pre-set capacity. Such a dispenser having the function of adjusting the water supply amount includes a measurement unit for measuring the amount of supplied water and a controller for checking the amount of water measured by the measurement unit and controlling a water supply valve.
The dispenser having such a structure needs to accurately measure the amount of water, and in this case, a flow sensor is generally used as the water supply amount measurement unit. In the flow sensor, generally, a small rotor is installed at an inner side of a water supply flow path and the number of pulses is measured by using a Hall effect element that generates pulses in proportion to the number of rotations of the rotor, by which the amount of water supply is directly measured. Besides, various types of flow sensors may be used, and these sensors generally include an element which operates mechanically correspondingly according to a flow rate, so if they are used for a long period of time, they are likely to malfunction.
In particular, when debris included in the supplied water is captured by more than a certain amount by the rotor or the like, an accurate measurement is not possible. Thus, water supply by the pre-set amount cannot be properly performed, degrading the reliability and user convenience of the devices.